20th Anniversary of Caffè Lena Poetry Part 2: Featured Poets, September 23

After the conclusion of the open mic portion of the 20th anniversary celebration, there was a long enough break for me to have dinner nearby at Hattie’s with the always lovely & talented Mary & Sally. Then back into Caffè Lena for the featured poets. 

A land acknowledgement & blessing was made by the new Saratoga Springs Poet Laureate, Joe Bruchac, with his native flute, Joe no stranger to the Caffè Lena stage, both as a featured reader & as a participant in the open mic.

Barbara Ungar, poet & professor, introduced the first reader, Sarah Giragosian, with remarks that included a reference to the American poet Robinson Jeffers (1887 - 1962), about whom not much is heard these days. Sarah began with a couple of new poems, “Found at Large” & “Gift of Ammonite.” Then poems from Queer Fish (Dream Horse Press, 2017),  “The Fish Beneath the Portuguese Man of War,” “All at Sea,” & “The Decorator Crab"), eco-poems, some in the persona of the fish. & from The Death Spiral (Black Lawrence Press, 2020) the chilling title poem, then “Mammoth Resurrection,” & “Wasps Nest.” Sarah has read her work here at Caffè Lena previously. I cherish her books & always look forward to a next one.

The next reader, whose work I was not familiar with, Roger Wyze Smith, was introduced by Nancy White, who is the President of The Word Works, which is publishing soon Smith’s new book Radiation Machine Gun. The poems he read from the book were a blending of poetry & memoir read in a spoken word style, included a conversation with his daughter about cancer & racism & death, another on radiation therapy, & a conversation with his father who had died earlier this year. He included a new piece titled “Black Mirrors,” then one about a snowman titled “Random Evening in January” from his 2015 book Chambers of a Beating Heart.

The final reader of the evening was Martín Espada, whom I had seen read in the past a couple of times at Split This Rock Poetry Festival in Washington, D.C. He was introduced by activist, poet, professor Victorio Reyes Asili, who described Espada as a Boriqua poet & a poet of hope. Espada read largely from Floaters (W.W. Norton & Company, 2021) which was awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize & the National Book Award in 2021. The title poem is a grim piece in which he proclaims the names of immigrants who had drowned trying to get to the USA; the tender “Love is a Luminous Insect at the Window” is a sonnet to his wife when they married; “Flan” evokes the the blackout in NYC & is for his friend the poet Jack Agüeros; & poems for his father, the documentary photographer Frank Espada (1930 - 2014), “Death Rides the Elevator in Brooklyn” & “Letter to my Father.” In addition he read a tribute to the late Roberto Clemente “Big Bird Died for your Sins,” a new poem “The City Wears a Coat to Bed,” & “Love Song of the One-Eyed Fish.” His delivery was bardic as befits his topics, his deep, sonorous voice adding to his presence.

The Caffè Lena Poetry Night continues to regularly draw in poets for the open mic, & the local & regional poets that Carol Graser invites as features attest to the rich variety of the poetic voice in this area, so that bodes well for this event to continue on for many more years. As for the last 20 years, it was a job well done.

The Caffè Lena Poetry Night continues on the 1st Wednesday of the month, at 47 Phila St., Saratoga Springs, 7:00PM, doors open for sign-up for the open mic at 6:30.